Don't fear home improvement projects

Published: Wednesday, October 3, 2012 at 4:42 p.m.

Last Modified: Wednesday, October 3, 2012 at 4:42 p.m.

One of the biggest challenges of being a homeowner is trying to keep the place from falling apart around your ears. There always seems to be another task that needs doing or another room starting to look shabby. No matter how much you tidy or clean, there are times when soap and water just won't do, and you have to enter the remodeling zone.

For years now my husband and I have turned a blind eye to the glaring insufficiencies surrounding us on a daily basis. The kitchen countertops whose flimsy plastic is held in place by duct tape, the dull paint that is in desperate need of a new coat, but most especially our dank and gloomy bathroom has screamed out for someone to do something.

Our excuse has always been that we are the parents of two small children whose 24-hour care takes up all of our time and most of our energy. There was also the fact that my husband was unemployed for several years, and every penny went into the bills. So we went about our daily lives seeing what needed to be done but scratching our heads over how to go about it.

But now the time has come where there are no excuses left, except our own laziness. The children no longer need constant care, my husband has been working steadily, and the bills are being paid on time. There is nothing left to do except just do it. With feelings of both dread and excitement, we have ripped the walls out of our bathroom and started the first of many home improvement projects.

The first thing you have to do when starting a project is to research what you want to accomplish. But you soon come to realize that all those things you took for advantage, like water coming out of a faucet, isn't a simple as it looks. For a couple on their first attempt at home repair, it's a little daunting. But never fear, I have an expert with a vast knowledge about any obstacle that we might come up against and years of experience on how it should be done.

My father has practically rebuilt the house where I grew up. We moved to Lexington when I was only a few months old, and my parents still live in the same house. In the span of 40 years, my parents have remodeled every room in that house, some more than once.

Every cabinet, wall and sink in the house was put in by my father. Every stroke of paint, electric outlet and drain has been by his hand. Every knob, bracket or door has been hung by him. There is nothing my Dad doesn't know about fixing stuff, and fortunately there isn't a tool that he doesn't have to do it with.

This came in handy when we came across our first challenge after tearing out the walls around the bathtub. When we removed all the old Sheetrock and wood, we discovered that the previous owners had added the bathroom to the existing house. We knew this as fact because we found ourselves standing in our bathroom and staring at plank siding like on the outside of our house.

It was if someone had just plopped a tub down and built a room around it, which in reality was basically what they did. There were no actual wall studs between the outside of the house and the bathroom except a thin layer of wood so you can glue on the shower shell. You've got to love old houses; they are full of secrets and surprises that make them as unique as people.

Of course the first thing we did was consult our project manager, who chuckled at the problem but was quick with a solution. It may take a little more work than we first expected, but it isn't beyond repair. Plus, we will brush up on our carpentry skills that we may need in the months and years ahead.

I am actually looking forward to getting my hands dirty and tackling a fairly decent home improvement project. I feel fairly confident that we can come through this successfully as long as we don't become overwhelmed and consult our expert on a regular basis. I just keep picturing a day in the future when I can walk into my sparkling new bathroom and feel that sense of accomplishment that comes from a job well done.

Sharon Myers is a married mother of two. She is a graduate of Lexington Senior High and received her bachelor's degree in journalism from East Carolina University.

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